Perception
by rain01721
Summary: SPOILERS FOR EPISODE VII. One shot series. 1. When Finn woke up he was cold. And everything hurt. Everything. Finn wakes up after the battle on the Starkiller Base. 2. Rey didn't know what life really meant. Rey's thoughts and feelings before she found Finn (and a little bit after too). 3. Her eyebrow was itching. Rey's first encounter with Luke Skywalker. 4. The Holo Conversation.
1. Finn

**I don't own Star Wars.**

 **But I did see the movie yesterday, and I thought it was great, especially because I wasn't actually expecting it to be much better than Episodes I-III. And I couldn't get this out of my head. So here it is:**

* * *

 **When Finn woke up he was cold. And everything hurt. Everything. Finn wakes up after the battle on the Starkiller Base.**

* * *

When Finn woke up he was cold. And everything hurt. _Everything_.

They hadn't trained for the pain with the Stormtroopers. They were expendable and so if they were broken enough to be in this much pain it was just easier to put them down. Plus the Stormtrooper armour helped.

But he'd been hit with a Lightsaber. Right in the chest.

A _Lightsaber_.

It's not every day that happened, especially with so few Jedi left. Finn was so sure he was dead. How did he survive? Had Ren just walked away without checking that he or Rey were dead? When he left Rey, she wasn't dead, yet, but with a fall like that... Could she have even survived?

He recognized the base as the base on D'Qar, the rebel base. Maybe Chewie had gotten them out of there. Maybe he'd found them after he'd gotten out and blown the Starkiller to hell. Maybe he'd thought that he had to save _someone_ after Han died.

Han Solo was dead. How was he supposed to tell General Organa that?! That their son had killed him? Was Ren even their son?

Was Ren destroyed? He doubted it. The bad guys had a nasty habit of staying alive.

Finn had so many questions, too many for a regular Stormtrooper. Were there even any Stormtroopers left? By being on the D'Qar system, they must have destroyed the Starkiller Base along with everything on it. Was it possible that FN-2187, a rogue, was the only Stormtrooper left? There must have at least been a few on other planets, but all Stormtroopers were supposed to have been there for the death of the republic, which was only a few days before.

Finn didn't want to tell anyone he was awake yet. Surely they'd come to check on him soon, but he just needed a moment. So much had happened in the past few days that he no longer knew what day it even was. He'd turned against the First Order and helped the Resistance's best pilot escape. He'd gone to Jakku and found a droid and a girl. He'd become an expert with aiming missiles at opposing ships. He'd blown up the Starkiller base. He'd turned to the Resistance.

Finn opened his eyes once again. His, or rather Poe's, jacket was lying across a chair next to his bedside, there were plastic curtains separating his bed from others, there were medications and heart monitors, there were doctors and nurses in white coats. They were looking after him. By the mass of others in this makeshift hospital, it was obvious he'd not been the only casualty of the battle.

Trying to sit up alerted two people to come to his bedside. The doctor mumbled something about his condition and how serious it was, but Finn was too preoccupied with the nurse who was pushing him back down. He could just see the gold coloured droid, was his name C-3P0? The red arm was being replaced with what looked like the original, which matched the rest of his body.

Finn tried to slip silently back down on to the bed, but it was too painful and he groaned, loudly, which alerted everyone else on the ward that he was awake.

They golden droid also stood up and crossed the floor. Finn tossed his head around desperately. He couldn't see the Scavenger or the Wookie. "Where's Rey?"

"Miss Rey is gone, sir." The escort droid told him.

"Gone?" Finn replied, with a heavy heart. Had Rey sacrificed herself so he could live?

"Yes. With that Wookie." Chewie too?

"No..." Finn breathed.

"Yes." C-3P0 replied. "If my calculations are correct, they should have reached their destination about two days ago."

"Destination?" Asked Finn, confused.

"Yes. They, with R2-D2, are on their way to find Master Luke. R2 and BB-8 managed to complete the map!"

"She's alive?"

"I believe so, although with Chewbacca flying that Falcon, anything could have happened. He has almost crashed. On more than one occasion. I believe he may actually have..." Finn tuned out the droid's voice. Rey was alive. Chewie was alive. The Starkiller base had been destroyed. Hell, even the Falcon had made it. They were okay.

Captain Han Solo was dead.

That was a painful reminder to him, especially when General Leia Organa arrived in the makeshift hospital. The General crossed the floor to Finn's bedside.

"Captain Solo didn't make it." Finn said after a moment of silence. In some way he wished that Leia would contradict him, tell him that Han had made it back, tell him that it had all been a dream and the only reason that he was in this hospital was because he'd fallen out of bed or something.

"I know." Leia said with a small, yet sad smile.

"He tried to talk to your... son." Finn realised he was probably making the pain worse for her and decided not to speak.

"Thank you. Your service to the Resistance has been invaluable."

"I need to see Rey." Finn said.

Leia contemplated his request for a moment. "Why?"

"Because I need to know what happened. And Rey was there. And I need to know if she's really okay."

It took Leia 27 heartbeats to reply. Finn hadn't been aware of the monitor bleeping previously, but now it was so tense that Finn could hear each one of his heartbeats, although, the volume was turned down.

"No." Leia turned to the window.

"Why?"

The doctor squeaked out, "He needs to rest. Not go to a distant planet." Leia nodded, silently, agreeing, although it was obvious that this was not her true reason.

Finn stood up, ignoring the screaming from all parts of his body, especially his chest. He blinked. "I'm fine."

"We've lost a lot of fighters in the last few days. We can't lose anymore. We don't even know if they made it. They haven't made contact in three days."

"No. Rey's alive. She has to be alive." Finn breathed heavily, which set his ribs on fire. He sat back down on the bed. "Where's BB-8?"

The orange and white droid rolled down the hallway. He tilted his head to the side. "Where's Rey?" Finn whispered, his voice shaking. Rey was the first person who had convinced him that he was an actual person, however inadvertently. He couldn't lose her now.

"BB-8 says that he has received several transmissions from R2-D2 in the last few days, the latest was just a few hours ago. They seem to have found Master Luke."


	2. Rey

**So I decided to continue, but as a one-shot series thing. I'm not sure how many I'll do, but as they're all separate, I'll keep it marked as complete.**

 **This one is about Rey and is set right** **(or maybe a couple of days)** **before the film.**

* * *

 **Rey didn't know what life really meant. Rey's thoughts and feelings before she found Finn (and a little bit after too).**

* * *

After a year, Rey stopped counting the marks on the walls. She still made them, every day when she got back from Plutt. Every now and then she counted lines, and in each line there were just under 300 marks. There were over 20 lines.

Rey could remember the day she was dropped off here. She could remember where she was before. But remembering wasn't the right word. She could never remember the names or faces, but she could remember colours.

Her mother's hair was brown, her father's hair was also brown. They lived on a planet where the land was green and there were blue seas of water. There was enough water for everyone and more, and it tasted… nice. Not of mud.

Rey was also pretty sure she had a brother, but all evidence of him had been wiped, expect that she shared a room with him, she thought.

But for too long, she had been prisoner on this planet. No one was forcing her to stay but herself. Rey was a pilot and could fly and ship she'd gotten in to, but never had quite had the courage to leave. Still, she could never bare to leave Jakku, a planet home to scavengers, sandstorms and the burning of the sun for most of the day. Rey was convinced that her family would one day come and get her, but the hope lessened with every day.

Her hope would soon be gone.

Rey often wondered what she would do if she had no memories, if she wasn't waiting for them, whoever _they_ were. She dreamed of all the planets she would visit, of all the different species that she might see. She might find someone who would travel with her, or she might travel alone. She might find someone who she actually wanted to talk to. She dreamed of eating real food, which didn't just expand out of water and some powder stuff.

Maybe one day she would change her hairstyle, which she kept the same so that if anyone ever came to find her, they might recognise her.

And if they came, they would tell her about how she was kidnapped, how they never meant to give her up, how they'd been combing every star system ever since she was taken, trying to find her.

They'd tell her their names, if her name was even Rey, all about their home planet. How old she was, her birthday. What her parents did, what her species was called, what language they usually spoke.

Rey had planned their meeting so many times in her head, never knowing if they would ever even meet. She'd imagined too many scenarios to remember, but she only remembered a couple, and even these seemed too fake to ever happen. Every now and then, Rey reminded herself of the truth – that her parents were probably never going to come and find her.

But she couldn't bring herself to leave.

She needed a catalyst, something to make her leave. Someone to convince her that they were never, _ever,_ coming to get her back. She was a grown up, Rey needed to make her own decisions. But she couldn't. She needed to be told what to do.

Rey hardly ever cried now. When she was younger she cried every day, just wishing for one more hug from her mother. But as her hope lessened the crying did too. It was just a waste of water.

Although Rey hated the scavengers and everything they stood for, she was glad that they had found her. She was half dead by that time. They gave her water and clothes when she grew, and although she had to work, she had something to do with her days, as at night, when it was too dark to scavenge, she became extremely bored. And when she couldn't sleep – for Rey, that was the worst.

There was no one to turn to. No one for her to listen to, no one to listen to her. That's what Rey hated the most. The being alone. Not even a droid to keep her company. Rey had no one to turn to, and even when she was occasionally content with her life, maybe when she's pulled in a particularly good haul, it still felt like a failure, because there was no one there to share it with.

Maybe one day it would change. Maybe one day she would be brave enough to change her fate. Maybe it would be today would be the day. Maybe it would be tomorrow. Maybe it would bit next, year or in ten years.

Or maybe it would never happen.

That's the fate Rey decided for herself every time she thought about it, which wasn't very often anymore, as it upset her every time she resigned herself to that fate.

* * *

That was a droid – over there, captured. He was struggling, and Rey could hear him. He was calling out! This was it! It was a sign that she'd been waiting for. A sign that thing were going to change.

Maybe that's why she took a trip to the junkyard a bit earlier that day. And that's why she got off the Godforsaken sand planet, with her new little droid, and her new… friend. Companion. Acquaintance. Crewmate. Friend. Finn.

Rey was scared. She was terrified. She didn't want to let Finn see, but he must've been blind not to see her hands shaking. Rey was okay when she was working out a problem, like how to get away from the TIE fighters. But when she had nothing to do… It was the first time she'd left Jakku in 18 years, and it terrified her.

And so did Finn.

He was a new strange entity in her life, something with a consciousness, something unknown. Someone unreliable. And he was lying to her, she could tell. Maybe he wasn't – she hadn't had contact with another of her species in years. But she wanted to trust him, and she wanted to have a friend. She let it slide and put her trust in Finn. He'd seen other planets, she could trust him to take BB-8 to the Resistance base, and from there take her back home – just in case they were looking for her.

It might be nice to see some of the galaxy, but she couldn't miss her family coming back to find her.

She'd already been away from Jakku too long.


	3. Her eyebrow was itching

**So this one takes place right after The Force Awakens ends.**

 **Also I tried to make it a little bit funny but... let's just say comedy is not my strongest strength (and neither is sentences making sense it seems).**

* * *

 **Her eyebrow was itching. Rey's first encounter with Luke Skywalker.**

* * *

Her eyebrow was itching.

Rey couldn't look away from Luke Skywalker's stormy blue eyes. As soon as he'd turned they'd locked eyes and Rey couldn't break the contact. Holding out his Lightsaber had been a stupid idea. He'd taken it as a challenge. She'd presented it as a challenge. That was idiotic.

Why couldn't he just _"Use the force"_ and whisk it out of her hand? Why couldn't he just walk over and say " _Thanks, what's your name?", "Why are you here?"_ or even just _"Go away!"_. At least then she would be able to itch her eyebrow.

The corners of Luke's mouth titled up.

No! He was reading her thoughts like Ren had on the Starkiller. He knew that she wanted him to take the Lightsaber. And that her eyebrow was itching. Maybe she could Jedi mind trick the Force into itching her eyebrow. But whenever Rey used the Force she closed her eyes and couldn't afford to do that with Skywalker. Did the Force even work like that?

That's why she needed a teacher – him, to tell her what the Force was all about. What it could do and what couldn't. And she was pretty sure it could do something as measly as itch her eyebrow.

"I've got my own." He said finally, and Rey put his first one, that she'd somehow now inherited, back into her belt.

She'd inherited Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber. He was the _legend_ of the _galaxy,_ a myth that she'd only heard fragments of in the junkyard. He was the reason that the entire galaxy was free from the Empire and its tyranny.

And _Rey_ had his Lightsaber! She was just a little girl, a nobody, who wasn't even from Jakku, but had spent all of the life that she remembered there.

"What's your name?" Luke finally broke the silence again.

"Rey. I'm Rey. And you're Luke Skywalker."

"Yes. Why are you here?"

"Because the Force has awoken. That's what General Organa said to say anyway. But she also said that you would be able to feel it. And to get Luke back because it's about damn time. And she sent us because she thought you would need convincing and also a ship. I mean you probably needed one to get here, but it might not work anymore. I mean," Rey tried to rub her eyebrow unsuspiciously. "A lot can change with ships in eighteen years. Sure we brought the Falcon here and that's been around… well it was in the Junkyard almost as long as I was there and it wasn't exactly new then." Rey rubbed her eyebrow again. "It's definitely had a lot of upgrades… Are you even listening to me?"

"Leia sent you?" Luke asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah."

"And who else?"

"Chewbacca and R2-D2."

"But you came in the Falcon?" Rey nodded slowly. "Then where's Han?"

"Captain Solo is dead." Rey said, finally giving in and clawing at her eyebrow.

"It was Ren." Rey nodded again. "I can't come back." Luke said, turning away from Rey again.

"Then I guess you'll have to train me here." Rey's itch was gone.

"What?" Luke turned back, quickly, and his hood slipped slightly. He wasn't expecting this little girl to demand anything.

"The Force has Awakened. It's time to fight back against the First Order and we're going to need at least on Jedi to take down Ren."

"The Force Awakened in you?"

"Yes. Can't you feel it?" Rey could feel it. Luke had so much Force. Leia had next to nothing compared to him, and Rey guessed that this was because she hadn't been trained. Ren had a little more, but overall, Luke had double his power. He must be able to feel hers. Or maybe his was overpowering everything else. Probably not.

Luke stared at her.

"Just because I'm a girl who has been abandoned on a sand planet most of her life, who doesn't even know her real age. Doesn't mean I'm not capable of possessing mit… midi… Jedi mind powers. I beat Ren in one battle already." Luke didn't question anything she said, but turned away again. Did he like the view? He had 18 years to stare at it. Why couldn't he just look at her?

"Tell Leia I'm coming back." He spoke to the water, and it was lost in the wind, but it echoed in her mind as Luke turned back to her.

"Oh. Good." Rey had not expected him to want to come to D'Qar. She had expected him to refuse everything, after being alone for so long, Rey thought that she would have to persist for days, maybe even weeks, to get him to even train her.

"I'll train you here, and then we can go back to the Resistance. Just a couple of week on how to use the Force before we go to… where's Leia staying these days?"

"The D'Qar system. That's where the Resistance base is." And where everyone was waiting for her to get back to with the person that was going to save them all. Finn was going to be there too. Rey hoped he was okay, but they couldn't risk the First Order getting to Luke before them, and as the Jedi with the Lightsaber, Rey had to go and find him.

Luke nodded and smiled.

Rey felt proud of herself. She'd convinced him to help them. The Resistance. She was part of that now. A couple of weeks had changed everything. She now had a friend in Finn, she'd finally left Jakku and even had met a little droid who had taken a liking to her. She had found out she was a Jedi and had a master in Luke.

And you know what?

Her other eyebrow was itching.


	4. The Holo Conversation

**It's been a while, hasn't it?**

 **Sorry.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoy and feel free to leave a review.**

* * *

 **Rey and Finn talk via a holo-projector whilst she's training with Luke and he's in hospital on the Resistance base.**

* * *

"Hi," Rey waved, even though the picture was really very fuzzy and she was awake that her arm most likely not in any type of focus at all. There was a really bad signal for holo-messages on the unknown planet where Rey was training with Luke Skywalker _(Skywalker!)_ And it didn't help that the Falcon had an age-old holo-receiver. Rey hadn't even known what one was until she'd been wondering about how Finn was doing and Luke plucked it out of her thoughts and showed her the holo-machine.

Finn waved back. Obviously it hadn't been too out of focus then. "Hi yourself."

"How are you?" Rey had asked him this every day since they'd started holo-messaging (three days ago) because he still had the Resistance hospital in his backdrop. Rey was worried. Shouldn't Finn have been a lot better? Maybe Rey was worrying for nothing as he always replied with-

"Fine. And you?" But occasionally BB-8 popped up and told her he was lying (so what if that was only once?).

"Quite tired actually. He keeps making me Lightsaber-duel him." Rey wasn't the best at Lightsaber fighting. Sure, she could hold her own, but apparently her fighting style was all wrong. She kept jabbing and _'fighting like a girl'_ as Luke put it. Rey had resisted the temptation to point out that she was, in fact, a girl. Moreover, whenever Rey tapped in to the Force she could feel it everywhere. Flowing through every blade of grass, every rock on the mountain. It distracted her a little. Occasionally.

"Well it's what you signed up for." Finn was kind of jealous and he was pretty sure Rey could tell. Rey got to train with _Luke Skywalker_ (Who, admittedly, Finn had never heard of before he met Poe, but the amount he was talked about… Finn felt like he knew Luke already) to become a Jedi! That was like… the coolest thing in the galaxy.

"I guess..." Rey said, "Wish you were here, though."

"Me?" Finn spluttered. He'd never been wanted by anyone before. But to Rey… She felt he was like a piece of home, because he was the only one in this world she'd been there with. Plus, he was her first friend (aside from BB-8) and the first person she had actually wanted to speak to for as long as she could remember. And, of course, she hadn't seen him since he had almost died. Not looking alive at least.

"Yeah. This would just be another crazy thing. Like shooting some TIE-fighters in a stolen ship with a broken gun. Or fighting a Jedi with a Lightsaber without being trained at all." Finn smiled. It looked good on him. And stretched some muscles in his face that he hadn't even known he'd had.

"Just another crazy thing…" Finn turned his head to the left, and Rey couldn't see what he was looking at, but soon enough an orange and white droid rolled into the picture. His head barely made the shot but it was BB-8 sure enough. "You know, I hardly see this droid. But when he hears your voice, he comes… rolling."

Rey grinned. "How are you BB-8?" People were very surprised that Rey could speak so many languages, what with being stuck on Jakku for all her life, but for Rey it was obvious. There were always new people passing through the junkyard all the time, and she picked up things very easily. Still, she was no C-3PO who was _'fluent in over six million forms of communication'._

BB-8 bleeped back at her that all his circuits were intact.

Rey smiled as BB-8 rolled away again.

"Poe called him." Finn said by way of explanation.

The two sat in awkward silence for half a minute.

"How are things going? With the Resistance?" Rey asked.

"I don't think they've found any communications through the First Order channels, but, uhh, that doesn't mean the First Order is dead. The Resistance is training new pilots, Poe said, and they're gathering as much ammunition as they can." Finn replied. Rey cringed at how out of time the audio and visual were. She could do a little lip reading and the words Finn mouth was saying weren't actually being heard until much later. It was painful. They really needed to update the Falcon's holo-communication unit.

"So no one's come to find you?" _And kill you?_ Rey added silently. Ever since Finn told her about being a Stormtrooper at Maz's place, she'd been terrified that the First Order would come and try to take her first friend away with them. (Although, her initial reaction had been to run into the forest with BB-8, which led to her capturing by the very people she wanted Finn to avoid at all costs.)

"No." Finn replied. He felt safest that he ever had on the Resistance base. And yes, the First Order would have survived, but severely decimated. They wouldn't be coming after him any time soon.

"Good." Rey looked determined as she heard Chewie in the distance. "I have to go."

"Okay." Finn replied. "I probably do too." That was a blatant lie that Rey could probably see through. He was lying in a bed with people coming to talk to him about his _dire_ injury of being stabbed in the shoulder with the end of a Lightsaber (apparently he had been lucky not to lose his arm) and then knocked out for a little while.

"Bye then. Talk soon?" Rey replied hopefully. It was still a new concept to her, people actually wanting to see her and talk to her.

"Yeah." Finn breathed out. "Let me know how training goes."

"I will. Bye." Rey smiled before ending the call and hurrying out to meet Chewie.

Finn smiled before putting the holo-receiver down and lay back on the bed. They would talk tomorrow.


End file.
